Don Emde embarked on a San Diego-to-New York motorcycle ride Saturday precisely at 9 a.m. — the same time Erwin “Cannonball” Baker departed on May 3, 1914.

“One hundred years to the minute,” Emde said.

Emde, 63, is doing his best to re-create a historic 11½-day journey that breathless reporters dubbed the “Cannonball Run.” Emde and 27 companions are following the original route, riding every day where Baker rode, stopping every night where Baker stopped.

But there are differences, especially in the Creature Comforts Department.

“We’ve got nice hotels and plenty of gas stations and Jacuzzis when we’re sore,” said Joe Colombero, 55, a Laguna Beach resident. “He was sleeping on the ground or on people’s porches.”

Baker set out in another era, motoring across a different land. When the Indianapolis adventurer left San Diego, there were no interstate highways and a paucity of paved roads. When it rained — and Baker departed in the midst of a rare San Diego shower — dirt tracks could turn into quagmires. His course sometimes meandered, as he veered off in search of scarce gas stations.

In Arizona, one of those stations was on an Indian reservation. Locals surrounded the stranger — not in a hostile manner, but to admire the logo on his 1000cc motorcycle.

“Indian,” it said.

“Nice name,” tribal members told Baker.

Scuba

Emde, who publishes a motorcycle enthusiast’s magazine called Parts, grew up in National City. His grandfather and father were both dedicated riders; the latter, Floyd Emde, won one of the sport’s great races, the Daytona 200, in 1948. Among the dignitaries to congratulate the victor was Baker.

Don Emde followed in his father’s footsteps — or exhaust trail — by winning the Daytona 200 in 1972. Fascinated by his sport’s history, he was struck a few years ago when he heard someone refer to a casual coast-to-coast ride as a “cannonball run.”

“I thought Cannonball deserved better,” he said.

Hoping to commemorate the epic 1914 ride, Emde turned up a pamphlet printed by the Indian motorcycle company, celebrating Baker’s feat. Exploring archives in Indianapolis, Kansas City and Columbus, Ohio, he learned details of Baker’s later life — the son who died in his teens, the wife who died of heartbreak, the late-in-life stint as NASCAR’s first commissioner. And he charted his cross-country route.

Even today, portions of this journey are challenging. Saturday’s journey to Yuma involved off-road riding in the dunes near Glamis; today’s route to Phoenix is part paved, part not; and Monday’s leg involves 50 miles of dirt.

“Then we get to Globe, Ariz.,” Emde said, “and it’s 3,000 miles of pavement to New York.”

Shattered record

Largely forgotten today, Baker once was a celebrity whose exploits were followed by the American public. Motor sports were starting to capture the national imagination — the Indianapolis 500 had begun just three years before, with a field that included future World War I ace Eddie Rickenbacker — and Baker was a two-wheeled star. He had already completed several daring motorcycle trips, including a 12,000-mile epic. That journey took him from Indiana to San Diego by way of Miami and, via several assists from ferry boats, Havana and Mexico City.

While a relatively short 3,300 miles, the Cannonball Run presented its own set of challenges. In New Mexico, a flash flood blocked Baker’s progress; he wasted hours seeking a safe place to ford. That day, he logged a scant 70 miles.

The delay frustrated Baker, who was determined to obliterate the existing record for crossing the country by motorcycle: 20 days, nine hours and one minute.

“He thought he could beat it by three days,” Emde said.

Instead, he shattered the record by nine days. He had averaged 300 miles a day, on a seven-horsepower motorcycle. “He was basically either riding or sleeping,” Colombero said. “And that was without Red Bull.”

Or GPS, a tool that Emde and his companions are using for their trip. Technology has made this journey easier, if not cheaper. Baker cut costs by stopping at Indian dealerships for gas and food. Lacking that resource, Emde’s riders budgeted $4,000 to $5,000 each for this trip.

“That’s what they make credit cards for,” said Ralph White, 79, a resident of Bullhead City, Ariz. “I’m retired, this is a once-in-a-lifetime thing, so what the heck.”